The eliminator could be affected by Mumbai’s strain as they play their third game in four days. Despite losing their most recent league games, the Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Giants both enter the elimination round looking somewhat more hurt. They are playing nonstop cricket at the end of the competition, lost their first WPL home game at Brabourne Stadium on Tuesday, and made four mistakes in the game. They also gave up a lot of runs in the field. After playing back-to-back games to begin the week, Thursday’s eliminator will be their third game in four days. If Mumbai advances to the final, they will have played four games in six days.
The Giants don’t have these problems. Their three consecutive victories prior to their trip to Mumbai would have given them a great deal of confidence, and their loss to Mumbai on Monday was only nine runs after Bharti Fulmali’s explosive finish. Their Indian players are stepping up at the right time to relieve some of the pressure on the overseas stars.
They haven’t defeated Mumbai, though. Mumbai has a 6-0 record versus the Giants in these three WPL seasons, but based on their most recent meeting, the upcoming match might not be as lopsided as this statistic indicates. Even though they had trouble finding Beth Mooney the ideal opening partner, the Giants’ middle-order batting, led by skipper Ashleigh Gardner and Deandra Dottin, was one of the reasons they rose in the standings. With a run rate of 5.97, the Giants have been the slowest to start in the WPL powerplay. However, they have improved tremendously in the middle overs, scoring 8.81, which is higher than anybody else’s, and they have finished second at the end (10 runs per over), only surpassed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
The Giants’ middle overs, where they will be trying to put the pedal to the floor but will be facing Mumbai’s formidable bowling, the strongest bowling team in that phase, could potentially determine the match based on current WPL patterns. Their standout middle-overs bowler, Amelia Kerr, may have given up a lot of runs on Tuesday, but her numbers might have been different if all the catches had been removed from her bowling. As demonstrated at the T20 World Cup last year, her capacity to perform well under duress might be demonstrated once more on Thursday.
Although teams have continued to choose to chase, the tide has reversed toward the conclusion of the league stage, with teams batting first winning the past three games. Both captains would be relieved to know going into the toss that it might not matter too much which way the coin falls. Out of 17 games, just two had been won by batting first before to that.
The onus is on the Giants to avoid a rerun of the 2023 final, even though Mumbai will be aiming for their second final in three years after losing to RCB in the eliminator last year.
